''Yuddham Sei'' () is a 2011 Indian
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
-language
neo-noir
Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
mystery
Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
*Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange''
Films
* ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film
* ''Mystery'' ( ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
written and directed by
Mysskin
Shanmugha Raja, known professionally as Mysskin, is an Tamil film director, screenwriter, actor, singer, and producer.
He made his directorial debut in 2006 with '' Chithiram Pesuthadi''. His subsequent films '' Anjathe'' (2008), ''Nandalala'' ...
. It stars
Cheran and debutant
Dipa Shah
Ananya Shah, better known as Dipa Shah, is an Indian actress who works mainly in South Indian films, television productions, and commercials.
Career
Shah started her film career in 2009, her debut film ''Ninnu Kalisaka''. In 2010, she acted in ...
alongside an ensemble cast including
Y. G. Mahendra,
Lakshmi Ramakrishnan
Lakshmy Ramakrishnan is an Indian actress, director and philanthropist. She made her debut in the Malayalam film ''Chakkara Muthu'' (2006), and has since appeared primarily in supporting roles in Tamil films.
Personal life
Lakshmy was born an ...
,
Jayaprakash
V. Jayaprakash is an Indian actor and producer who works in Tamil and Telugu-language films. He ventured into film business in the early 2000s as a producer, making several films under his banner GJ Cinema and later turned actor, with Cheran's ...
, and
Selva
Selva () is a coastal comarque (county) in Catalonia, Spain, located between the mountain range known as the Serralada Transversal or Puigsacalm and the Costa Brava (part of the Mediterranean coast). Unusually, it is divided between the provinc ...
in supporting roles. The film was released on 4 February 2011 and was remade in Kannada as ''
Gharshane
''Gharshane'' is a 2014 Indian Kannada language action thriller film directed by Dayal Padmanabhan, and is a remake of the 2011 Tamil film, ''Yuddham Sei''. It stars Malashri, Ashish Vidyarthi and Ayyappa Sharma in the lead roles. The supportin ...
'' in 2014.
Plot
The film opens on a rainy night. A woman, while trying to hire an auto standing by the curb, notices an unconscious girl at the backseat. She calls the police upon realizing that something was wrong, but she is chased by a man sitting in the driver's seat.
The scene then shifts to a New Year's celebration by the beach, where a cardboard box atop a parked car attracts the attention of revellers. The police are called. An identical box is also found in a park.
Amputated
Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indivi ...
male arms are found in the boxes, and the case is put onto Senior Inspector J. Krishnan, known as J.K. (
Cheran), of the CB-CID. He is a brooding ex-cop who shifted to the CB-CID from law and enforcement and at present is searching for his sister Charu (
Ineya
Shruti Sawant better known by her stage name Ineya, is an Indian actress and model from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala who predominantly appears in Malayalam and Tamil films. She won the Best Actress Award for her role in the Tamil film '' Vaagai S ...
), who disappeared six months prior. Prakash (Shankar) and Tamilselvi (
Dipa Shah
Ananya Shah, better known as Dipa Shah, is an Indian actress who works mainly in South Indian films, television productions, and commercials.
Career
Shah started her film career in 2009, her debut film ''Ninnu Kalisaka''. In 2010, she acted in ...
) are two junior officers who are put onto the case to assist J.K.. At the
morgue
A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cus ...
, they meet Judas Iscariot (
Jayaprakash
V. Jayaprakash is an Indian actor and producer who works in Tamil and Telugu-language films. He ventured into film business in the early 2000s as a producer, making several films under his banner GJ Cinema and later turned actor, with Cheran's ...
), a medical examiner, to investigate the hands. Judas, mildly
esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
, often draws parallels between J.K. and
Jiddu Krishnamurthi. J.K. is able to identify one pair of hands as belonging to auto driver Moorthy and follows the lead. Through a local goon named Surendra, they single out a middleman named Rajamanickam. J.K. then gets a cop to give him sensitive information stored in files at the ACP's office while still trying to trace his sister. He often goes and visits the place where his sister was last seen in the hope of getting clues. Meanwhile, Rajamanickam is tortured, his hands amputated using an electric saw by a black-clad man with a shaven head, and displayed in a subway crossing. A constable gives a tip that Rajamanickam's bike is at a lodge in Triplicane. J.K. goes to investigate but finds a man, Raghu (whom Rajamanickam stayed with at the lodge) killed in his room. He chases a man who crossed him on his way up into the streets, but loses him.
The focus then shifts to John Britto, a missing man who stayed with Raghu. Interviewing Britto's brother, he finds that Britto was the cause of disgrace to Dr. Purushothaman (
Y. G. Mahendra) and his family, who all committed suicide the previous September. J.K. gets permission to reopen the Purushothaman case. Purushothaman had been accused of bribery, and his wife Annapoorni (
Lakshmy Ramakrishnan
Lakshmy Ramakrishnan is an Indian actress, director and philanthropist. She made her debut in the Malayalam film ''Chakkara Muthu'' (2006), and has since appeared primarily in supporting roles in Tamil films.
Personal life
Lakshmy was born an ...
), a professor at a women's college, of instigating a 19-year-old lab attendant named Manikandan to have sex with her. However, everyone questioned has only nice things to say about the family, while Manikandan is said to be a petty thief and a scoundrel. It is discovered that Manikandan has been missing since November, having disappeared around the same time as John Britto himself.
Now we are introduced to a mysterious green
Qualis
Qualis is a Brazilian official system with the purpose of classifying scientific production. It is maintained by the Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), a government agency linked to the Brazilian Ministry o ...
, which prevents an autorickshaw driver from kidnapping a drugged woman and abducts him instead.
Tamilselvi, while looking at old case records of the Purushothaman case, finds that Purushothaman had a daughter named Suja (
Srushti Dange
Srushti Dange is an Indian actress, who has mostly appeared in Tamil films and appears in a few Telugu and Malayalam films.
Career
Srushti Dange initially appeared in supporting roles, playing a victim in Myshkin's ''Yuddham Sei'' (2011), bef ...
) who disappeared on the same day as Charu – September 6. J.K. investigates the Purushothaman family's house, and later goes to a dodgy inspector who handled the Purushothaman case, Isakki Muthu (
G. Marimuthu
G. Marimuthu is an Indian film director and actor, who has worked in the Tamil film industry. After making his debut as a director with '' Kannum Kannum'' (2008), he has gone on to make other ventures including '' Pulivaal'' (2014) and feature ...
), for details. J.K. prods Isakki to give him details about Duraipandi (
Manikka Vinayagam
Manikka Vinayagam (10 December 1943 – 26 December 2021) was an Indian playback singer and actor. He sang for South Indian language films and acted in several Tamil films as a character artist. He was the son of the dancer Vazhuvoor B. Ramiah ...
), a textile shop owner and influential businessman who was accused of peeping at girls in the change room of his shop through a hole in his office (one of whom was Suja). J.K. interviews Duraipandi, who was able to get off after his manager Nadhamani took the blame. J.K. is unfazed and undeterred by what Duraipandi has to say and concludes the case is showing resemblances of having the
Rashomon effect
The Rashomon effect is a storytelling and writing method in cinema in which an event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by the individuals involved, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same inciden ...
. He then reconfirms again with Judas on the findings of the Purushothaman family's autopsy. He is able to get a major lead when he finds that there were two people in the auto rickshaw that took Suja from her dance class. The same is established for his sister's disappearance.
We then find that ACP Thirisangu (
Selva
Selva () is a coastal comarque (county) in Catalonia, Spain, located between the mountain range known as the Serralada Transversal or Puigsacalm and the Costa Brava (part of the Mediterranean coast). Unusually, it is divided between the provinc ...
), Isakki Muthu, Duraipandi, Sharif, Inba (
Yugendran
Yugendran (born Yugendran Vasudevan on 20 December 1976) is an Indian actor and singer who has sung hundreds of songs in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. He is also an occasional music director and host.
Personal life
Yugendran is the son of the ...
), Raghu's murderer, and the missing men – Nagu, Moorthy, and Rajamanickam - are in cahoots. Thirisangu arranges for Sharif and a few men to deal with J.K. and keep his nose out of their business. In the midst of the ensuing fistfight, Sharif is kidnapped by the same Qualis. J.K. deals with the men, and Sharif is tortured and executed (but not before he names a few men).
A new box with the autorickshaw driver's severed arms appears in a club used by two of the named men, and Sharif's head is found outside Isakki Muthu's police station, minus its eyelids. J.K. triangulates all misdeeds to ACP Thirisangu and Isakki Muthu, as all the severed body parts were found in areas under the ACP's jurisdiction (notwithstanding the fact that the Purushothaman family's cases were handled and closed by Isakki Muthu himself), but his boss Chandramouli (
Aadukalam Naren
Narayanan (better known as Aadukalam Naren) is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil and few Telugu films, mainly in supporting roles. He made his début in 1997 film ''Raman Abdullah'' but he got noticed for his role in the 2011 film, ''Aa ...
) refuses to have the officers questioned, fearing higher pressure. Unable to take any further action, J.K. requests a gun permit.
It is also revealed that Charu is being held captive by Thirisangu. It is discovered she is the woman from the first scene. Although he regrets having kidnapped her, he plans to use her for later. Then, the Qualis appears again and tries to kidnap Isakki, but it is forced to flee when J.K. intervenes. Chasing the Qualis to a darkened underground car park, J.K. and Tamilselvi very nearly corner the Qualis, only for it to broadside their car and make good its escape. Tamilselvi is wounded in the accident; when she comes to at a hospital, she reveals to J.K. and Prakash that there were two black-clad people in the Qualis, both with shaven heads (one of whom was a woman). After rescuing Isakki Muthu, Thirisangu realizes that someone is looking for revenge for Purushothaman's death, and with the help of Purushothaman's ex-classmate, finds out whom. Both Thirisangu and J.K. then understand that the Purushothaman family may not actually be dead (J.K. concluding so when he finds the air-conditioning unit grill in the Purushothaman family bedroom to be tampered with from the outside, and when he learns that three corpses with age ranges and physical characteristics consistent with those of Purushothaman, Annapoorni and their son Nishanth went missing from the morgue where Judas worked at about the same time as the family's "suicide"). At a party, Judas comes in and tells Duraipandi & Co. (the men named by Sharif) that he is willing to sell information about their activities. He leads them to a van wherein they are gassed and knocked out, but as they are leaving, a shootout takes place between Thirisangu, J.K., and their comrades, in which Judas dies after confessing.
Judas says that he is the only one who must confess, as the Purushothaman family will never speak again; the reason he helped the Purushothamans in their grisly deeds was one of pure friendship, love and gratitude, because the doctor (who was also his classmate at
Vellore CMC) managed to keep Judas' daughter alive for four years before she finally succumbed to a heart condition. Judas' friendship with the Purushothaman family was so strong, that Suja was like a daughter to Judas.
Thirisangu & Co. are revealed to be running a racket which involves kidnapping and drugging virgin girls, who are then stripped naked and raped before Duraipandi and his friends (all wealthy men in their late 50s and early 60s who are
impotent
Erectile dysfunction (ED), also called impotence, is the type of sexual dysfunction in which the penis fails to become or stay erect during sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in men.Cunningham GR, Rosen RC. Overview of male ...
), in return for a huge sum of money. Suja (
Srushti Dange
Srushti Dange is an Indian actress, who has mostly appeared in Tamil films and appears in a few Telugu and Malayalam films.
Career
Srushti Dange initially appeared in supporting roles, playing a victim in Myshkin's ''Yuddham Sei'' (2011), bef ...
) is one such victim (the girl in the auto), apparently having been abducted as revenge for what Duraipandi perceived as public humiliation at the hands of her family. It is during her kidnapping that Charu is also apprehended. Somehow, Suja manages to return home three days after her disappearance. Unable to bear the trauma of the rape, she commits suicide the next morning. Her parents, brother Nishanth and Judas decide to take revenge on all those responsible. They fake their deaths after meticulous planning. Two months after they successfully fake their own suicides, kidnap Britto and the peon Manikandan, and make them confess. Later, auto rickshaw drivers Nagu and Moorthy (as well as Rajamanickam) were kidnapped, tortured, and then had their arms severed.
The boy Nishanth (Sunil Choudhary) is caught in the fracas and taken into custody by the police. J.K. receives a call from Inba, who wants to trade Charu for Nishanth. Chandramouli blatantly refuses to do so. However, his subordinates - Prakash, Tamilselvi, and Constable Kittappa (
E. Ramdoss
E. Ramdoss (died 23 January 2023) was an Indian film director, screenwriter and actor who worked on Tamil films.
Life and career
Ramdoss was born in Villupuram to freedom fighter Ethirajalu Pillai and Poongavanam. As a youngster, he regularl ...
) - bring Nishanth to J.K. at the cost of their jobs. Nishanth reveals the location of his parents to be the old Palaniappan Mills. Both parties head there; another shootout occurs. Nishanth is caught by Isakki Muthu but is distracted by the arrival of Duraipandi & Co. (all of whom have had their eyes gouged out), and also Britto and Manikandan, both with their tongues cut off. Isakki Muthu manages to wound Purushothaman with one bullet and tries to finish him off, but before he can do so, Annapoorni rushes out and stabs him in the head, killing him instantly. The couple continues their onslaught, killing Inba and the rest of the gang; although Thirisangu keeps pumping round after round into the duo, his bullets merely slow them down somewhat. Finally, Thirisangu arrives with Charu. Seeing her as their daughter Suja and this as a chance to save her life, they sacrifice themselves for her as J.K. kills Thirisangu.
Duraipandi is sentenced to 13 years prison. The others are sentenced to seven years each, with the exception of Britto and Manikandan, who are given three years each. Nishanth is asked to be produced in court by the police, but J.K. covertly sends him abroad under the alias of Mahesh Muthuswamy, giving him
Viktor Frankl
Viktor Emil Frankl (26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997)
was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part ...
's ''
Man's Search for Meaning
''Man's Search for Meaning'' is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to f ...
'', asking him to search for the meaning of his parents' sacrifice. Because of this, J.K.'s team is suspended for six months for letting a convict escape.
Cast
Production
Mysskin
Shanmugha Raja, known professionally as Mysskin, is an Tamil film director, screenwriter, actor, singer, and producer.
He made his directorial debut in 2006 with '' Chithiram Pesuthadi''. His subsequent films '' Anjathe'' (2008), ''Nandalala'' ...
originally cast
Udhayanidhi Stalin
Udhayanidhi Stalin (born 27 November 1977) is an Indian film producer, actor, and politician who prominently works in the Tamil cinema. He is the Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development of Tamil Nadu in the ministry led by his father, ...
as the lead actor of the film, which would have marked his acting debut. After participating in a
photoshoot
A photo shoot is the process taken by creatives and models that results in a visual objective being obtained. An example is a Model (person), model posing for a photographer at a studio or an outdoor location.
A photo shoot is a series of images ...
and a few early test shoots, Stalin opted out and cited he wanted his first film to be a comedy rather than a thriller.
Based entirely in Chennai, ''Yuddham Sei'' shoot was completed within 50 days.
Soundtrack
The music was composed by
K and released by
Sony Music India
Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd. is the record label operated by Sony in Chennai, India. The company began operation in 1997, and it was the first record company in India to be 100% foreign-owned, with Sony being a Japanese corporatio ...
.
Release
Made on a budget of 4 crore, ''Yuddham Sei'' was a commercial success.
10 years later, it was dubbed into Hindi as ''Crime Case 99'' which had a TV premiere on Bflix Movies.
Critical reception
The Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...
gave 4 stars out of 5 and wrote, "With its apt casting and superb performances and direction, ''Yuddham Sei'' carries all the weapons needed for it to win its battle at the box-office".
Rediff
Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City.
, it had more than 300 e ...
gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "''Yuddham Sei'' may have its flaws, but Mysskin's neat touches of situational humour, clever twists in the first half and convincing characters make this a neat film, if not a classic".
Sify
Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...
called the film "average" and wrote, "the film has a few gripping moments but suffers on account of inconsistent writing which makes it drag in the second half".
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
wrote, "Mysskin is a thinking director, who makes no bones about his yen for makers in the league of Kurosawa and Kitano. The influence is generally seen in his intelligent storylines. Yet the first half of YS hangs in strands and confounds the viewer — ambiguity rules the segment. Nevertheless, the latter half brings you to the edge of your seat, most of the time".
IANS
Indo-Asian News Service or IANS is a private Indian news agency. It was founded in 1986 by Indian American publisher Gopal Raju as the "India Abroad News Service" and later renamed. Their main offices are located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The ser ...
gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Despite slow second-half, the films does impress as a smart and realistic detective story". Behindwoods gave 2.5 stars out of 5 and called it "A slow paced well made thriller".
Deccan Herald
''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printe ...
wrote, "Stylised camerawork, haunting score and decent performances keep one interested, though the film is pulled down by its own weighty expectations. Still, Yuddham... is worth its while and wallet". Indiaglitz wrote, "''Yudham Sei'' is absolutely watchable just for Mysskin and his way of story telling".
References
External links
*
{{AGS Entertainment
2011 films
Indian crime thriller films
Films about rape in India
Films directed by Mysskin
2010s Tamil-language films
Tamil films remade in other languages
2011 crime thriller films
Films scored by K (composer)
2010s police procedural films
Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police
Films about kidnapping in India
Films about organised crime in India